And many felt that the story of cowboy John Marston is among the best ever captured in a video game.

Parent company Take-Two revealed this week in a financial statement that Rockstar Games is beavering away on something special.

The game remains officially "unannounced" but will appear in shops before March 2015, maybe even late this year.

SHOOT OUT: Cowboy thriller could get a sequel [ROCKSTAR]

And the Grand Theft Auto hitmakers are confident of mega sales.

They reckon Rockstar's work will account for 45% of the firm's total revenue alone in 2015.

The Red Dead sequel rumours have been fuelled by a recent ambiguous compatibility listing on PC.

The Windows listing for popular devices that would work with a Red Dead game suggests a port of the originial console title might be making its way over to PCs after four years.

But many believe it would be a bit unusual for a firm to suddenly put out a new version of a four-year old game.

And suggestions have turned to connections with a potential Red Dead 2, which some insiders are calling Red Dead Rebellion.

“It's been our goal not just to preserve and grow the Grand Theft Auto franchise, but also to build others that we think can be permanent, like Red Dead ”

Strauss Zelnick boss of Take-Two

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said last year that the group aimed to make the Red Dead series one of Rockstar's "permanent franchises".

He said: "Outside of our business you can look at James Bond, for example.

"And it's been our goal not just to preserve and grow the Grand Theft Auto franchise, but also to build other franchises that we think can be permanent, whether that's the Red Dead franchise or the Borderlands franchise or the BioShock franchise or others, Civilization for example."

Red Dead franchise sales topped 13 million units within a couple of years of the original game, including Redemption's standalone add-on Undead Nightmare and PS2 and Xbox release Red Dead Revolver.